What the heck? Apparently this thing has been around for a while, but it’s news to me. Basically, the Thermaltake Xray fits into a 5.25” drive bay, and provides a bit of comfort for chain smoking, beer-swilling computer users. You see, the Xray provides both a beverage tray and a cigarette lighter. The light can be removed, and you can use the port to charge in-car accessories like a cell phone. Now you can finally be the envy of the LAN party - it’s just sad that it took this to get you there.

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For those of you looking to blur the line of fantasy and reality even more, check out the PistolMouse FPS. Basically, this is a gun shaped mouse meant to be used in computer first person shooters. Rather than using your mouse to frag others with a quick left-click, you can now actually pull the trigger to take down your foes. Don’t know how comfortable this would be, or how accurate - the manufacturer, MonsterGecko, says it increases accuracy, but that is what they are supposed to say, right? Nonetheless, it costs $39.95 with a 30-day money back guarantee. It works via USB on Windows, Mac, and Linux boxes.

Rio has dropped a budget priced Forge on us - the SE510. The higher-end Forge, pictured above on the left, is darker in color and has porthole screws. Other than that, they look exactly the same. The new SE510 is a 512 MB flash-based MP3 player, but unlike the Forge, it does not have an integrated FM tuner or SD card slot. The end result - the SE510 is about $25 cheaper than the Forge. It looks like Rio has chosen to continue the odd naming scheme for the budget versions of their audio players.

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If IBM is going out, they are gonna do it in style. IBM has announced the lightest laptop featuring their built-in fingerprint reader along with new software that helps keep the notebook working in top performing condition. The X41 weighs in at 2.7 lbs and comes bundled with software that will keep your notebook up to date and will also help recover information lost as a result of software failure. The notebook comes equipped with a 12.1” XGA display and is powered by an Intel Pentium M 1.50 GHz processor. The X41 will be available April 12th and will set you back at least $1,999.

Ever wanted to transfer some files from your friend’s USB flash drive to yours, but didn’t have a computer around? With the SyncBoxII from Macally, you will never have that problem again. The handheld device allows you to transfer files from devices that use USB ports to other USB devices. This is great alternative to Apple’s iPod CameraConnector since it’s not iPod-specific. Now for the money question: Can it support iPod to iPod (or other hard drive based digital audio players) music transfers? No word yet, but time will tell. The MSRP is set at $49.95, and the web site states the SyncBoxII will be “coming soon”.

If you live in Seattle (like me) or Los Angeles, you know a thing or two about traffic. I-5 can be a total nightmare during rush hour. TrafficGauge brings a portable device that alerts you to the traffic conditions in realtime. It runs on two AA batteries and lasts for about six months. It doesn’t win any points for looks, and I wonder what the benefit it of dropping $50 in addition to the $5 monthly fee on the device when I can just turn on the news at home or on the car radio. The reason I mentioned Seattle and LA earlier is because TrafficGauge only supports these two areas for the time being.

MTV has launched a beta version of their new broadband digital entertainment service called MTV Overdrive. Using the service, you are able to download the latest news, music, live performances, short form shows and music videos directly to your PC. All of the media is DRM protected. As the site describes:

The videos on MTV Overdrive are encoded in Microsoft Windows Media 10 format to insure the maximum possible video quality. In order to offer you a broad selection of full-length music videos on-demand and free of charge, MTV Overdrive uses Windows Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect the videos from unauthorized re-distribution. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s Windows Media Player Plug-in for Macintosh does not currently support DRM. When DRM support becomes available for Macintosh, MTV Overdrive will work to support Macintosh.

So, Mac users are going to have to look elsewhere for now. Still, it is always cool to see more services offering free video content. One other negative - the service mus tbe used with Internet Explorer, as Firefox is not compatible.

Yagoohoo!gle brings you search results from the two most popular search engines on the web. It works nicely if you want to cover all your bases with your searches, although the results are displayed in a split-screen window (buy hey, no ads!). Use it with Firefox to open results in a new tab, and you are all set. Nifty.

Rumors abound regarding all the things Sony expects to do with the Playstation Portable. Over at I4U you will find a roundup of the features that visitors to the site expect to find, as it is compiled based on PSP search queries. Some are more obvious than others (like web browsing, or the white PSP), but check it out.

I was perusing the aisles of my local Best Buy as I sometimes like to do, and noticed that they had the Mac mini available for purchase. I know, what a major retail chain chooses to stock isn’t the most exciting topic in the world - but the significance here is that this is the only Mac available for purchase in a nationwide chain. The Mac mini has gone mainstream, and this is a nice coup for Apple. Now the Mac mini will be seen by the casual shopper looking for the best deal, and the price tag on the mini is very attractive.